POLITICS


How metro mayors could help eliminate


regional inequality Regional inequality has been an “intractable problem” for nearly a century – but giving metro mayors more power could help to finally deliver levelling up, according to Lord David Sainsbury. The former Sainsbury’s chairman and life


Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station


peer believes increased regional responsibility for spatial planning and transport policies – similar to those held by the Mayor of London – as well as further powers to align courses run by further education colleges with industry needs would improve how cities are managed, while creating a “much more favourable business environment”. He also called on the Government to


target more R&D funding at poorer regions, rather than established centres of excellence such as London, Oxford and Cambridge, as this would allow “value-added sectors” to grow outside the South East. Lord Sainsbury unveiled research on these


issues at a Levelling up the UK’s regional economies webinar hosted last month by the Centre for Cities think-tank that he founded.


The abandoned Clipstone Colliery Headstocks Lord John Mann, another cross-bench peer


who was Labour MP for Bassetlaw from 2001 to 2019, believes the Prime Minister will place great significance on developing a green economy as rapidly as possible because he won’t want his legacy to be tarnished by Covid-19. “We’ll see significant investment, for example,


in the electric car industry to try make us world leaders and, off the back of that, there’ll be openings for advanced technological innovation,” he says. He believes taking advantage of tax breaks,


such as the 130% first-year capital allowance for plant and machinery in the “super-deduction” policy announced in the budget, will help the UK to get a “headstart”.


THERE’S ALSO OPPORTUNITIES presented for cities in the Midlands by the anticipated exodus from the capital post-Covid. Lord Mann says there’s “lots of whispers in


Westminster about what on earth is going to happen in London” as companies pivot towards homeworking, commercial property values plummet and major investors follow people in looking away from the South East. He adds: “This is a huge opportunity for our


region, quite unlike any that’s been before, as investors with the products and services of the future look to relocate either their people or physical infrastructure. “We’ll see vast amounts of this, which means


the era of the Midlands Engine is about to happen if there’s the inventiveness.” The Chamber and its partners have already


noticed a growing number of inward investment enquiries from businesses currently based in London and the South East, says Chris Hobson,


Lord John Mann


although one of the key challenges to address will be providing enough high-quality workspace. Abandoning “yesterday’s thinking” in terms of


our approach to developing cities and towns, as well as the role of technology, is also critical to grasping these opportunities. Chris adds: “What’s really important for us in


the Midlands, which we’ve previously fallen foul of, isn’t to focus on how much funding we receive compared to other areas of the country but to instead focus on what we can give back as a return on investment in infrastructure within the region. “To be clear, infrastructure is a means to an


end for us – it’s about creating business growth, harnessing exciting new technologies and regenerating communities. “So what is our offer in the Midlands? The


advanced logistics sector has been going great guns over the past 12 months, while we also have strengths in MedTech, biosciences and advanced manufacturing that can grow for national benefit with the right infrastructure investment.” It’s all a far cry from the coal mining era of


Clipstone’s heyday and Lord Ravensdale believes there’s ample opportunities for these left-behind communities. But it will require the Government to “define


what levelling up actually means because we all know that what gets measured, gets managed”. He adds: “The Chancellor said last year he


would do whatever it takes to support households and businesses through the Covid crisis, and we need a similar unambiguous commitment from Government to do whatever it takes to level up the regions.”


‘The only way to level up the UK is by supporting the growth of existing or potential new clusters of high value-added businesses in the poorer regions of the country’


“It should be remembered that regional inequality has proved an intractable problem in the past and the price for success is enormous,” he said. “If the country’s underperforming cities


close their output gap, the UK’s economy would be nearly £70bn larger. That’s a target worth going for.” The reason for “deep regional inequalities”


stemmed back to the Industrial Revolution, in which many cities in the North specialised in a single industry, said the former Science Minister. “As these industries faced competition


from low-wage firms in the developing world and their prosperity declined, new high- wage, value-added firms blew up in the South instead,” he said. “The experience of other countries should


show the Government the only way to level up the UK is by supporting the growth of existing or potential new clusters of high value-added businesses in the poorer regions of the country.” In January, the Centre for Cities published


the Cities Outlook report, an annual health check of the economic performance of the UK’s largest cities and towns. It said the “unprecedented increase” in


the number of people claiming unemployment-related benefits since March 2020 meant there was now a four-fold increase in the number of people who now needed to find or improve their job situation in those regions in order for levelling up ambitions to be realised.


business network April 2021 49


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76